New in Kentucky

I go to Sergio's every week. I don't think I asked about that in particular last time. I will though Sergio is great always treats me and my dad, if he decides to go too, respectfully. Even when he's tired of slightly sick. I respect people that know their personal life doesn't come into work and he knows that! Actually looked for something special for me right after a trip. I was shocked he was even at work!

 

Lucky's Market in Lexington is having a 20% off beer sale today. Pretty cool that they do this every once in a while (I know it's happened at least once before). Certainly makes $$$$ beers like Poterie and Abyss more appealing.

 

Not stellar, I went today. Lots of standard Founders stuff, Abita bombers, Lindemans, and the local stuff that gets distro. I was going with the intent of stocking up on Heller Heaven, but the list was $15.99 a 4-pack, which is about $6 more than at the other locations in town, so I just left empty-handed.

 

Couple of bottles of 70K at whole foods lex - 20.99 if anyone is still searching

 

Saw this in Michigan but had a hard time pulling the trigger on purchasing one. I havent heard much about London Balling and the price tag is $15 a can here.

I was second guessing myself on the ride home for not picking one up (love barleywines) but after reading some of these posts via search, it made me feel slightly better about my decision, lol.

 

Holy crap. That's outrageous, and I'd never recommend paying that much.

 

Yea no doubt....was kind of surprised to see that type of a price point on it, especially after reading the mixed reviews. That stock might be collecting a little bit of dust.

 

It's not flying off the shelves in Louisville either. $9 per can is a little high.

 

I really liked the bottle barrel aged London Balling I imagine the cans are not aged :/

 

London Balling is ONLY a BA barleywine. There's no other versions.

 

Couple of bottles available about 50 miles outside of Chicago for $9/bottle. Not bad at all for a BA Barleywine, but I'm not going that far.

 

I wouldn't say AtG is necessarily blowing the doors off, but I'd say you might have some location bias? You could just as easily say that they have "great BA beers and the IPA's are at least decent." Country Boy can't seem to develop any sort of consistency with their barrel aged beers; Ethereal is great, but not operating on anything near the scale of AtG.

AtG catches a lot of shit because they're probably the most well known craft brewery in KY, but if the expectation is a constant stream of great beers, you're probably going to be disappointed; if that's the standard, though, you're going to be disappointed by the vast majority of craft breweries in the country. AtG is who they are: a decent brewery with a handful of really great beers (IMO of course) that's also had some busts, which can probably be said about any of the others on your list.

 

Yeah, I think we've probably yet to see a really great brewery in KY, but I can say they all have something I enjoy drinking. I like AtG because of their willingness to experiment, but that's not always led to the best results, and their prices are sometimes a headscratcher. I guess it's easy to forget that the whole craft brewing phenomenon is still pretty new in this state, and I look forward to seeing how everybody can dial their stuff in over the next few years.

As far as new beers: I grabbed a 12 pack of Half Bite from W6 for a Lake Cumberland trip last week, and that's probably my new favorite summertime outside on the water beer. Not mindblowing, but tons of flavor without huge body.

 

If you like blueberry, I'd recommend tracking down Revolution's Blue Gene since you enjoyed Very Mad Cow. It's exactly what I imagine BA Tres Blueberry to taste like. One day...

 

I haven't been during one of their sales but when I've been they've had a pretty good selection. Was the sale only in their grocery or what was the deal? I was planning on going to buy some Bruery bombers but never made it out. Just wondering what was going on?

 

Sadly, it seems like AtG's BA stuff has decreased in quality from the first few releases of 70K, B&L, London Balling especially. I hate this on multiple levels -- first, those beers are not cheap on tap or in packages, so I want to get the best beer for my bucks. Second, having access to killer, sought-after local brews makes it a helluva lot easier to trade, even just doing it $4$. I would feel guilty sending a local bottle at cost to a solid trader who's doing the same if/when I know what I'm getting is far better than what I'm sending.

 

Yeah, they did have a few Bruery bottles, but I think Poterie was the only big ticket bottle available. The others were in the $12-15 range